122. The Legend of Man’s Acquisition of Corn
(A SENECA-TUTELO LEGEND)
In ancient times there was a village situated on the banks of a river. The chief source of subsistence of the people was the natural products of forest and stream—that is to say, game and fish, berries and various edible roots and tubers.
There came a day when the people dwelling in this village were told by an old woman that she heard the voice of a woman singing on the river; and she told them further that the words used by this strange singer were: “Luxuriant and fine are the planted fields where I dwell, going to and fro. Luxuriant and fine are the planted fields which we have planted. My grandmother and my ancestors have planted them.”
After hearing this singing for 10 nights the old woman said to her family and neighbors: “Let us go out to see what this singing means; perhaps some woman has fallen into the water, and it may be she who is singing in the middle of the river.” They did go to the river bank, but saw nothing, and they returned much chagrined at their failure to discover the singer.
On the tenth night following, the woman again began to sing, seemingly from the middle of the river not very far from the village. Again she sang: “Luxuriant and fine are the planted fields (of corn) where I dwell, going to and fro. Luxuriant and fine are the planted fields (of corn) which we have planted. My grandmother and my ancestors have planted them.” Then the women of the village, going to the river bank for three nights, sang songs of welcome and recognition, and on the third night these women perceived that the singer on the river had drawn nearer to them. On the fourth night the women watching with their children on the river bank, and singing in response to the singing on the river, were surprised to see coming toward them a large number of women. Thereupon one of the girls exclaimed: “Oh, grandmother, do not let these women seize us,” and the children fled from the place. But the spokeswoman, who was the eldest person present, said: “I alone shall remain here to await whatever may befall me, and I do so because my granddaughter, who is coming, is in need of pity and aid.” [[643]]
At this the woman, the midstream singer, exclaimed: “Oh, my grandmother! take me hence. I am not able to go there (where you now are).” Then the grandmother (so called by the courtesy of clan kinship) placed her canoe of birch bark in the stream and soon by rapid paddling reached the side of the young woman who had been singing in midstream. She found her granddaughter lying on the back of a beaver, which mysteriously held her above the water. The granddaughter was the first to speak, saying: “Oh, my grandmother! take me hence.” The grandmother, replying: “Oh, my grandchild! your wish shall be fulfilled,” at once proceeded to place her granddaughter in the canoe, after which she headed for the shore of the stream, paddling to the landing place in a short time. When they had landed, the young woman said: “Oh, grandmother! now leave me here. I will remain here, and you must come after me in the morning. Nothing shall happen me in the meantime.” The grandmother at once returned to her own lodge, where, of course, she related in detail what had taken place.
Early the next morning she returned to the landing place where she had left her granddaughter (by courtesy). There she saw only the growing stalk of a plant. Drawing near to this she found growing on the stalk an ear of corn, and breaking it off she carried it back to her lodge, where she hung it up on a roof-supporting pole hard by the fireplace.
It came to pass during the following night that the grandmother, so called, had a dream or vision, in which the young woman who had been singing in midstream said to her, “Oh, my grandmother, you should unhang me from this place, for it is indeed too hot here. You should place me in the ground—plant me—and then leave me there; for I will provide for you and your people, you human beings. So kindly place me under the ground.” This dream came to the old woman three nights in succession. So she took down the ear of corn, and after shelling it she planted the grains of corn in the ground just as she had been instructed to do by the dream.
But on the following night the grandmother again dreamed, and the young woman in the dream said to her, “You and your people must care for me. You must not permit weeds to kill me. You shall see me sprout and grow to maturity; and it is a truth that in the future all the people who shall be born will see that I will provide for their welfare. So you must take great care of me. You will see, you and your people, a great multitude of people who are about to arrive here. You will see, I say, that I will provide for all during the time the earth shall be in existence. You shall now learn what is a well-known truth—that is, that I am corn; I am native corn; I am sweet corn. I am the first corn that came or was delivered to this earth.” For three successive nights the grandmother, [[644]]so called, had this same dream or vision, hence she came to regard it as a direct intimation to her regarding the disposition to be made of the corn on the ear which she had found on the bank of the river. So forcibly did the injunctions impress her that she planted the corn in the ground as directed; and she carefully followed the directions of the Corn Maiden as to the care required by the growing corn to enable it to mature and to prevent it being choked to death by weeds.